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- Villains of the 60s
The British criminal world of the 1960s produced a collection
of characters whose notoriety has gradually acquired the
status of celebrity. Public fascination with the Krays
has lasted long after the demise of their underworld empire.
But they were not the only villains of their generation
whose names have gone down in criminal legend. The 1960s
produced a number of characters whose defiance of law
and order earned them a recognition that has sometimes
bordered on respect and even admiration.
The single most famous crime of the 1960s was the Great
Train Robbery. On 8 August 1963, 15 hooded men stopped
the Glasgow-to-London 'Up-special' overnight mail train,
robbing it of £2,631.684. Up to that time, Britain's
most spectacular robberies had yielded only a fraction
of that sum and the scale and audacity of the operation
appalled the authorities.
During the raid, the train driver was coshed over the
head. He never fully recovered, and died seven years later.
Most of the haul £2,295,150 - has never been recovered.
The name most commonly associated with the robbery is
that of Ronald Biggs even though his role in its organization
was minor.
His notoriety stems from his successful escape from Wandsworth
prison a year after receiving a 30-year jail term for
his part in the robbery. After undergoing plastic surgery
in Paris, he flew to Australia where he stayed with his
wife and two children until 1969. He then fled to Brazil.
By 1989. Biggs had been on the run for nearly a quarter
of a century.
Going straight John McVicar was once described as 'the
most dangerous man in Britain'. His criminal career stretched
from the late 1950s through to his final arrest and renunication
of crime in 1970. He was involved in armed robberies,
assaults on the police and two escapes. He remained on
the run for over two years.
What was most remarkable about McVicar, however, was his
transformation from violent crime to study and writing.
In 1974, he published his autobiography and three years
later was awarded an Honours degree.
After his parole in 1978, he became a journalist and also
gave lectures on the subject of crime. In 1980. Roger
Daltrey starred in a film (called McVicar) based on Mc
Vicar's criminal career.
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